Performance Boosters—Middle Grades

By Calvin Hennick

Teach For America alumnus

7th grade Language Arts, 2004-06

Frederick Douglass Academy III

South Bronx, New York

As a new teacher two years ago, I had high hopes for student achievement. But I soon learned that kids don’t perform in poorly run classrooms. Here are some tips that helped me get my 7th graders off the walls and into their seats, where they wrote brilliant essays about Lord of the Flies.

Sweat the small stuff